A. Executive Summary

As
a result of cosmic radiation interaction with the atmosphere we find
that a series of phenomena known as extensive air showers results
from the decay of these particles when they make contact with the
gases and other elements our atmosphere is composed of. Because each
particle decays differently depending on the strength of the forces
that bind it we find that air showers produced by different particles
produce a different array of daughter particles which if unstable
continually break up into other subatomic particles. Because of such
we can determine what kind of particle each air shower is produced by
based on the pattern of decay left as it approaches ground level and
the energy of the particle causing the air shower.

The purpose of our project is to
determine the difference between gamma and electromagnetic air
showers. We are going to solve this problem with the help of the
CORSIKA computational model. The CORSIKA model itself is a Monte
Carlo system, that is to say, that it randomly chooses numbers for
simulation. We want to evaluate the distribution of particles at
seven thousand feet and first interaction relative to density that
our data plots produce. All graphs are plotted on a Cartesian
coordinate system with the center of the interaction as the origin.
If a particle is a proton we expect to find more greater particle density towards the
center of the interaction. If a particle is a gamma then we expect it will not
have as much particles and they will be more spread out towards the
center of the interaction.

Another means of determining the
differences between shower data and plots which we plan to employ involves evaluating the different daughter particles that
each interaction produces. For example if a particle is a proton it
will produce muons, as mandated by its decay pattern. If it the particle is gamma then it will produce
solely electromagnetic daughter particles with much lower probability of producing muons. For the purpose of collecting accurate data we will be analyzing several 10,000 shower events.